If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

FM19 Issues

I am still in the process of trying out different scenarios, but here's the issues that I've discovered so far...

When starting with a team from 70's:

1. Computer always drafts punters and kickers at the beginning of the 3rd round. This is not that big of a deal, but seems like it should be more random based on players skill and should occur later in the draft

2. You can trade draft picks twice, after that the value offered is less that you are trading. For example, you might be able to trade up for nothing once, trade for $$$ a second time, but after each trade the value lessens and by the third trade you can't get enough value. This is not per year either its for the duration of your playing. It was so bad I once offered 15 2nd round picks for a 1st round pick in the same year and they still were not interested.

3. After about 6-8 years of playing the finances glitch and you wind up loosing a billion dollars, but it gives you 900+ million in cash. 2-3 years later it take it away and puts you in a financial hole so deep you can't get out even selling your entire team.

4. Player ratings are different if you advance to a year versus starting off in a specific year. For example, If I start a game in 1973 when I get to 1979 and draft him, his stats are lower than if I started a new game in 1979. I've check this for a couple players randomly and it seems to be true for several of them. No sure why there is separate numbers...

5. I have a team 30mil under the max, with a power ranking of 1-3 for three consecutive years, high attendance and good concession sales, yet I loose more and more money each year. Raising ticket prices results in less money and increased debt. Can't figure out how I have a 40mil dollar loss when I should be making money because I am spending less then every other team in the league.

Fun Fact, when I change the year I am starting in, the game logic is altered fixing some issues and creating new ones. i am still trying different scenarios as I have time, but here's what I found so far...

When starting with a team from 2018:

1. Top half of draft picks require a 30+ million dollar signing bonus at minimum. This makes it virtually impossible to sign multiple first round draft picks. Furthermore it causes the computer to value late first round draft picks because they require much less money at signing.

2. Players improve much slower, not necessarily an issue, but it's a noticeable difference. It also seems like players can't get above the mid-80's until in their late 20's to mid 30's, if at all. Again, not necessarily an issue, but a huge difference to what happens when taking over a team in the 70s.

3. Draft picks seem to have a little more value when trading for players, but are still grossly under valued when trading down draft picks. On a plus side, the computer is no longer drafting punters and kickers in the 3rd

4. Scouting has less of an effect on determining the players ratings. For some reason, despite it saying my scouting is a +/- 2, I consistently draft players only to have their over all fall by over 4 points and no matter how much I increase the money towards scouting the accuracy doesn't improve.

I'll post more as I am able to play around in different time frames and in different scenarios. Also please be aware that this testing was done while simulating the entire season at once and then the playoffs were simulated one at a time. Free Agency and Drafting was done manually (just in case it makes a difference).

Re: FM19 Issues

Perhaps this will help in understanding some of the issues you have identified.

1) Draft picks: this has been improved (hard to believe but true); however, it still needs work as you have noted. Offers get worse after each trade. Also, if you offer the first pick in a draft the computer offers are terrible. Try it sometime. Before the draft, go into Commissioner mode and force a trade for the 1st pick. Then offer it for trade. Yuck.

In the current version, you can set the computer Draft strategy by modifying the DraftStrategy.txt file in the Input folder. Instructions are in the file. You will need to experiment with this since it does not work quite the way described...

2) How much a team makes is dependent upon how much cash a team has. This appears to be the algorithm used to "normalize" earnings. Terrible algorithm. So if you have a lot of cash, expect to lose a lot of money. So I waste money by buying draft picks, trading up for slightly better players and reducing cap impact by re-signing players.

3) Player ratings are based upon the player's birthday (not the season). So, if you draft a player with a birthday between mid-March and mid-August their ratings will drop immediately after the draft. This is really sad since it means you have to manually check each player's birthday prior to drafting! This may also explain why which year you draft a player in results in a different rating.

4) Slow change in ratings. The player's peak start and peak end affect when their rating go up and down. So a 23 year old player with a peak start of 30 will see little improvement until they approach 30. A 23 year old player with a peak start of 24 will see gains more quickly.

Unfortunately, the developer has choosen not to make the peak start/end and birthday easily viewed (this has been requested). You must go into edit mode on each player, one at a time, in order to determine this info.